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Forum talk:A Proposal for an Electronic Voting System
I think it's important that this page not get too cluttered with implementation details. It should focus on requirements for voting systems and perhaps just give examples of how those requirements aren't being met by existing (electronic) voting systems, are being met by other systems, and might be met by future systems. People could potentially get confused if there are too many details without trying to be concise about why those details are important. --Kg6cvv 21:47, 6 July 2006 (UTC) My Object in Creating the Topic My objective was to present a simple proposal for a voting system, not talk about all kinds of electronic voting systems and their problems. The name of the topic was too general and I've revised it. The Ballot is the Object of the Exercise The ballot itself is the object of the exercise. All the rest is for ease and convenience in creating, recording and counting ballots. Once a ballot is released to the voter, along with a receipt bearing the unique ballot code, the voter should be able to take the paper ballot over to a completely different machine, perhaps even manufactured by a different company, and confirm what was encoded on the ballot. This is an unnecessary step, really, but would build confidence in the system1. Then the ballot could be given to the poll workers as is ordinarily the case or it could be placed by the voter into a machine that would transmit it to the central office. The paper ballot would be retained in case there is a need to recount the ballots2. Sampling could be done with these retained ballots to confirm the accuracy of the electronic transmission of each ballot3. 1. This is not unnecessary at all. It is essential. 2. The paper ballot is the ballot. There is no other ballot. 3. Sampling? Are you kidding me? No way! Count the damn ballots! By hand, in public, broadcast and taped with the same care given to counting the "drop" in a casino. As many times as are necessary to satisfy the people who voted that its been done properly. Keep them stored, retrievable, and recountable for... I don't know... a decade at least. I also don't know about the receipt business. A receipt opens up vote selling. If it's not vote selling then it's a question of confidentiality. The bad guys, the NSA for instance, could crack the average voter chosen password in nanoseconds. Interesting thought. Needs a lot more work. Thanks for taking the time to go through the exercise. Electronics cannot be kept out of voting anymore than they can be kept out of anything else. But their ancillary position must be emphasized from the very beginning. The assumption above is already that the real ballot is an evanescent pulse of electricity : a phenomenon at second or third remove from the actual vote, the validity of which must be accepted on trust or authority. It must be possible to pull the plug and have the election go exactly as planned... slower perhaps... but otherwise just the same with ballots filled out by hand. The ballots must always be counted by hand. Separate, preliminary tallies may be made and released sooner with the understanding that they are just that. The ballot is the object of the exercise. The collection of the peoples' ballot is the reification of the election